Quick demountable screen for enclosing garage doorways and the like



y 15, 1969 w. A. BOGUMlL 3,455,366

7 QUICK DEMOUNTABLE SCREEN FOR ENCLOSING GARAGE DOORWAYS AND THE LIKEFlled Sept 15, 1966 INVENTOR. WALTER kjyMlL fl Grn 5,

United States Patent US. Cl. 160-368 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREA quickly mountable and demountable screen construction for a garage cardoorway is provided, characterized by spring clips secured to thedoorway casing face at intervals along its perimeter and arranged toremovably receive and clamp a flexible member secured to the edge ofscreen cloth to the casing face.

This invention relates to a quick demountable screen for enclosinggarage doorways and the like so that the interior of the garage can beused as a recreational area free from bugs and in which small childrencan be safely contained.

Especially during the warm weather, the garage of a home provides adesirable recreational area, particularly with the car door or doorsopen to permit free movement of air through the garage. It is desirablethat this area be screened in, however, both as a protection againstbugs, sun, heat and strong breezes, and also to contain small childrenagainst running out on the highway. It is desirable that such a screenbe quickly removable and replaceable so that the garage can be easilyplaced in its normal service of providing a weatherproof enclosure foran automobile.

It is an object of the present invention to provide such a screen whichis very inexpensive and at the same time weather resistant, the screencloth preferably being made of flexible fiberglass.

It is another object to provide such a screen which can be quicklyinstalled by one having little skill, it being a matter of about tenminutes initial installation time for one man.

It is another object to provide a screen which, once a in place can betaken down or replaced by one man in a matter of a minute or so.

It is another object to provide such a screen which can readily bestored by being rolled up or folded over into a compact form.

Another object is to provide such a screen which, if run into by anautomobile, will be pulled out of its fasteners without damage to thescreen.

In accordance with the present invention there is pro vided a screenconstruction for a garage car doorway having surrounding casing memberson the top and side edges, which comprises a flexible screen clothhaving top and side edges arranged against the face of said casingmembers, a flexible member secured to the top and side edges of thescreen cloth to form enlargements, and a series of spring clips, eachhaving a base secured to the casing face, a jaw having a concavityfacing said face and an outwardly angled lip at the outboard end of theconcavity, whereby said enlargements may be forced between the lips andeasing face to open the jaws and allow said enlargements to enter theconcavities and be clamped by the jaws against the casing face.

In the accompanying drawings, FIG. 1 is a fragmentary outsideperspective view of a garage having its car door opening covered by ascreen embodying the present invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged,fragmentary hori- 3,455,366 Patented July 15, 1969 "ice zontal sectiontaken generally on line 2 2 of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a fragmentary outsideor front elevational view of the garage particularly showing one of thequick attach and release spring clips for attaching the screen cloth tothe casing of the door opening. FIG. 4 is a further enlarged fragmentaryhorizontal section taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 3. FIG. '5 is an enlargedperspective view of one of the spring clips.

The screen structure forming the subject of the present invention isshown as enclosing the garage car doorway 10 of a garage indicatedgenerally at 11. The framing of the garage around the doorway 10includes the conventional double studs 12 forming posts at the sides ofthe garage doorway, and supporting the usual lintel (not shown) which inturn carries the usual horizontal trim exterior strip 13 forming thatpart of the casing across the top of the garage doorway. The doublestuds are shown as having vertical casing member in the form ofconventional stops 14 and vertical trim strips 15. The garage is shownas having conventional clapboard siding 16. Those exterior trim orcasing members 13, 15 provide a vertical exterior face extendingtransversely of the doorway and to which the screen cloth 18 isreleasably fastened.

This screen cloth 18 preferably comprises a single rectangular sheet 19of screen cloth of suflicient size to have its top edge 20 arrangedagainst the vertical exterior face of the horizontal trim or casingstrip 13, its vertical side edges 21 arranged against the exteriorvertical faces of the vertical trim or casing stips 15 and its bottomedge 22 substantially in contact with the floor of the garage. The topand side edges 20, 21, and also preferably the bottom edge 22, are eachin the form of rolled edges constructed as shown in detail in FIGS. 24to provide transverse edge enlargements 23.

An important feature of the invention is that each transverse edgeenlargement 23 includes a flexible helical metal spring 25 which extendssubstantially the full length of its edge of the screen cloth 19. Eachedge of this screen cloth 19 is carried or wound around its spring 25with its extremity secured to the body of the screen cloth by stitching26 or in any other suitable manner. It will therefore be seen that thescreen cloth 19 has 9. rolled edging including flexible springsextending substantially the full length of each edge particularly thetop and side edges. 7

This transversely enlarged edging 23 is secured to the trim or casingmembers 13, 15 of the garage doorway 'by means of spring clips indicatedgenerally at 30, the screen cloth being shown as held by four of suchclips across its top edge 20 and four of such clips across each of itsvertical edges 21. Each of these clips is made of a single strip ofspring metal having a flat base 31 provided with a keyhole slot 32,although the slot could be in the form of an ordinary straight sidedslot, extending lengthwise of the clip adapted to receive the shank of ascrew 33 which screws into its trim strip 13 or 15. The purpose of theopening 32 being in the form of a slot is to permit of adjustablepositioning the attached clips 30 by loosening and moving the clipsinwardly or outwardly relative to the doorway before tightening thescrews.

This clip also includes a round C or channel-shaped jaw 34 projectingfrom one end of the base 31 and forming a semicircular concavity 35 ofsufficient sizeto yielding embrace the rolled edge 23 of the screencloth. The extremity 36 of this jaw of each clip which is remote fromthe base 31 is in spaced relation to the plane of the attaching face ofthe base 31 and is continued in the form of a lip 38 which is arrangedat an acute included angle to this plane. It is an important feature ofthe invention that the outboard extremity 39 of this lip 38 is at agreater distance from this plane than the outside diameter of thetransversely enlarged edgings 23 of the screen so that when attached tothe casing this lip 38 provides a lead in having a contracting opening40' between it and the casing strip and leading to the salient 36 of thejaw 39.

In installing the screen cloth 19 the spring clips 30 are attached tothe exterior casing or trim strips 15 of the doorway in two verticallines spaced from each other to correspond to the width of the screencloth 19. A horizontal row of top spring clips 30 is secured to the topcasing member or trim strip 13 at a distance from the garage floorcorresponding to the height of the screen cloth. If this floor has apronounced slope these spring clips will be arranged so that the bottomedge 22 of the screen cloth 19 will follow the floor and in so applyingthe clips 30, the screws are left untightened so that their shanks canbe adjusted along the slots 32.

The screen cloth 19 is laid with its lower edge 22 on the floor alongthe front of the vertical trim strips and it is unrolled, first catchingits vertical side rolled edges 23 in the lowermost pair of spring clips30.

This is done by pressing these rolled edges into the contractingopenings 40 between the lips 38 of this pair of clips and then forcingthem past the salients 36 so that these rolled edges spring the freeends of these clips away from the vertical trim or casing strips 15 andso that the rolled edges 23 of the screen cloth can enter theconcavities 35, whereupon the outboard ends of these spring clips springback into pressure contact with the side rolled edges 23 of the screencloth. This is repeated for the successive pairs of spring clips 30,moving upwardly until the top horizontal row is reached when the toprolled edge 23 of the screen cloth is forced into the concavities 35 ofthis top horizontal row of spring clips 30 in like manner.

If at this time any repositioning of the screen cloth 19' is required,any of the clips 30 can be moved toward or away from the garage car dooropening 10 by virtue of the elongated slots 32. After such adjusting ofthe position of the screen cloth 19 and the various spring clips 30,their screws 33 are tightened so as to secure the bases 31 of theseclips to the exterior of the doorway casing.

Should a car be driven into the doorway 10, it will, of course, strikethe screen cloth 19. However, all that will happen with be that therolled edges 23 of the screen cloth will be pulled out of the jaws 34 ofthe spring clips 30 and since the screen cloth is preferably made offiber glass and its rolled edges 32 provided with a completely flexiblecore in the form of the helical metal spring 25, no injury of the screenwill take place. Such fortuitous occurrence would not take place if thescreen had had rigid members forming its rolled edges 23 or if suchrolled edges were not held by the spring jaws 34 of the clips so as tobe freely released therefrom. However, the pressure of the spring clips30 against these rolled edges 23, and their number, is suflicient towithstand small children leaning or falling against them thereby toprovide a barrier against their running into the dangers of the roadway.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the present invention achievesthe objectives initially set forth.

I claim:

1. A quick demountable screen construction for a 4 garage car doorway(10) and the like having top (13) and side (15) casing members providinga face extending transversely of said doorway, comprising a flexiblescreen cloth (19) having top (20) and side (21) edges arranged againstsaid face of said top (13) and side (15) casing members, an elongatedflexible member (25) secured to and extending substantially the fulllength of each of said top (20) and side (21) edges and formingtransverse enlargements (23) thereof, and a series of spring clips (30)having bases (31) secured to said face of said top (13) and side (15)casing members, said spring clips (30) each being made of a single stripof spring metal and having a jaw (34) forming a continuation of saidbase (31) to extend toward said doorway (10) and formed to provide aconcavity (35) facing toward said face with its outboard extremity (36)spaced from said face less than the thickness of the transverse edgeenlargements (23) of said screen cloth (19) and said spring clip alsohaving a lip (38) forming a continuation of said outboard extremity (36)of said jaw (34) and arranged at an acute included angle to said faceand providing'an opening (41)) of greater than said transverse edgeenlargements (23) of said screen cloth (19), whereby said screen cloth(19) can be installed and removed from said casing members (13, 15) byforcing its transverse edge enlargements (23) into said openings '(40)against said lips (38) to force said lips (38) and outboard extremities(36) of said jaws (34) away from said face and permit said transverseedge enlarge-' merits (23) to enter said concavities (35) to be held bysaid spring clips (30) in pressure contact with said casing members (13,1'5).

2. A quick demountable screen as set forth in claim 1 wherein saidelongated flexible members forming said transverse edge enlargements(23) of said flexible screen cloth (19) are each in the form of aflexible helical metal spring (25).

3. A quick demountable screen as set forth in claim 2 wherein saidflexible helical metal spring (25) is each secured to its edge of saidscreen cloth (19) by a stretch of said screen cloth embracing saidhelical metal spring and means (26) securing the extremity of saidstretch to the body of said screen cloth (1'9).

4. A quick demountable screen as set forth in claim 1 wherein said base(31) of each spring clip (30) is provided with a slot (32) elongated inthe direction toward said doorway (10) and adapted to receive a screw(33) anchored in its casing member (13, 15) whereby said spring clips(30) after being screwed in position can be moved to adjust the positionofsaid screen cloth (19) before the screws (33) are tightened.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 774,462 11/ 1904 Wright.1,312,130 8/1919 Merrill et a1. 2,643,711 6/1953 Smith -371 X 2,888,0705/1959 Smith 16088 3,004,592 10/1961 Norton 160-114 DAVID WILLIAMO'WSKY,Primary Examiner P. C. KANNAN, Assistant Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,455,366 July 15, 1969Walter A. Bogumil It is certified that error appears in the aboveidentified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected asshown below:

Column 2, line 18, "member" should read members line 30, "stips" shouldread strips Column 4, line 22, after "greater" insert size Signed andsealed this 28th day of April 1970.

(SEAL) Attest:

Edward M. Fletcher, Jr.

Commissioner of Patents Attesting Officer WILLIAM E. SCHUYLER, JR.

